"So what is the state of the Hurd? Is it vaporware, like Duke Nukem Forever? Fortunately not: the code exists, there is still work going on (for instance as part of Google Summer of Code), and there are even some relatively functional Hurd distributions. Let's look first at the code and the current architecture, and then at the Hurd distributions."

If a Hurd kernel existed and was usable on a wide range of machines, it could be a better option than Linux for many use cases. Because it would not be bloated yet, would have a more secure and robust microkernel infrastructure, and would be an easier codebase to work on.

You could say the same thing about DragonFlyBSD and it is progressing at a much faster rate.

I agree with the parent that HURD exists for non-technical reasons. Declaring HURD a dead end would be too painful for Stallman. He is extremely jealous of the success of Linux as can be seen by how he yelled at a kid over not calling it GNU/Linux. The guy is a kook and there are better and more interesting alternative Nix kernels in development.